Last year I posted asking for advice on what people would want in their dream home workshop, and got some great responses:

http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,1161.0.html

Since then construction has got underway so I'll do a few progress reports and talk about specific details and decisions that may be useful to other people.

The concrete slab was poured a couple of months ago, allowing for a double garage at the front and the workshop at the back. The garage was deliberately made longer than necessary to allow plenty of room at the end for a "dirty" workspace where I'll have a heavy workbench for mechanical work and bulk storage. The workshop has been designed in such a way that ultimately it could be fitted out as accommodation (like a granny flat) if we sell the house down the track, so it has a bathroom in one corner. Should be handy for me in the meantime too: no need for trips into the house to use the main bathroom.

As of this morning the workshop area looks like this:

That view is standing in the middle of the garage looking through the workshop to the back wall. Weatherboards have just gone on this morning. The big open area to the left (where the saw is sitting) is the double-door entrance to the workshop, and behind the yellow rubbish bag is the bathroom area. The total workshop area is about 5m x 6m (15' x 18') with one corner used for the bathroom.

Roughing in of the electricals begins tomorrow morning. There will be about 60 power outlets in the room (12 at each of the four dedicated workstations, plus others) and at least 20 Gig Ethernet sockets. All the electricals are being cabled up for automation, with loads being switched directly from a central wiring closet using DIN-rail mounted relays controlled by Arduinos. Light switches etc won't have any high voltage wired to them at all: they'll just be Arduino-based PoE devices that send messages over the LAN to an automation controller.

There will also be cabling through the wall for video, audio, and power for wall-mounted status screens.

Just been working out what sockets to provide at each workstation. This is my current plan:

So that leaves 4 power sockets and 2 Ethernet sockets under the bench, with 8 power sockets, 2 Ethernet sockets, and a ducted vacuum socket (plumbed through a low-speed fan for fume extraction) above the bench.

I'm pondering whether it's worth putting in any audio connections: perhaps a set of 4 RCA sockets wired through to a central patch panel somewhere. I don't have any uses for it right now though. Another idea is USB sockets wired to a 5V power supply (handy for charging things that plug into USB). I'm not convinced it's worth the trouble though.--JonFreetronics: www.freetronics.com

What spec plug points are those? I love the smaller spec plug points I constantly see adapters for here in South Africa. We had a smaller sized three-point plug (looks the same as our current one's) decades ago that where half the size of our current ones.

Not really a relevant questions I know, just curious.

"The really amazing thing is how many people are successful with their Arduino projects considering the fact that so many of them do not have a technical background. A lot of them seem to try, and succeed with, projects that no sane engineer would even attempt." - floresta commenting on the proper use of LCD displays

@ Graynomad. Interesting. I just love the small plugs. Our version of a "small" plus is the two-point one's which never really work. Thanks for the info

"The really amazing thing is how many people are successful with their Arduino projects considering the fact that so many of them do not have a technical background. A lot of them seem to try, and succeed with, projects that no sane engineer would even attempt." - floresta commenting on the proper use of LCD displays

I've just come inside for a rest after spending the day with the sparkie dragging cable. There's now 400 meters of power cable roughed in, and I've just started dragging the cat 6. I'll be heading back out there in a minute to get as much of it roughed in tonight as possible.

@graynomad: built-in benches around 2 walls. There'll also be a heavy workbench on locking casters for mechanical work. I have a rough floorplan drawn up but I'll try to do a neater one and post it here.

By the way, you *do* live in a house: just not one with a fixed address! Or maybe it's just that your stumps are made of rubber and they rotate. That truck of yours is bigger than some houses I've seen.

The reason I asked is that I had something similar years ago and I drilled 2" holes in the bench (as close to the back as possible) at regular intervals because no matter what combination you think of now there will always be a reason to run one more cable from top to bottom or vv.

Admitedly with that many sockets it's hard to imagine that would happen, but just a thought.

Quote

Or maybe it's just that your stumps are made of rubber and they rotate.

He he, they haven't done much rotating lately, we've been camped in the same spot just outside Perth for two months. We'll have to move soon though because I'm meeting up with some photographers to photograph Karijini Nat Park in May. Although I did spot a good EE job just yesterday, just up the road from where we are. I almost applied but had a lie down until the feeling passed.

Quote

That truck of yours is bigger than some houses I've seen.

We had a builder from Sydney come down to check the truck out a few years ago. He was building "studio apartments" or something, they where 27sqm in size and he wanted to see how we packed everything (including a double garage) into 25sqm.

@graynomad: Regarding the number of outlets on a circuit, I was a bit worried about that too so I had a good chat to the sparkie about it. He said the regs previously had a hard limit on the number of sockets per circuit, but that it's now been relaxed to allow a higher number at the judgement of the electrician. In this case I'm likely to have a lot of low-power devices plugged in so we came to the conclusion that it would be OK to have a higher than average number of sockets per circuit. For example, a typical workstation may have a few things plugged in at once:

That's 9 or 10 devices, but none of them are real poweraholics so the total current draw would be fairly modest. In any case we still split them up in reasonable numbers so there are a bunch of separate circuits cabled back to the distribution panel.

I did something similar but I was retro fitting an existing basement and only had one circuit to add sockets to. I did the work myself and reasoned the same as you, but every now and then in winter I'd forget and switch on a 2400w heater

Still as long as you have appropriate breakers it doesn't really matter.

I would also add (perhaps per workstation - though the walls will be getting pretty full): compressed air and natural gas (might as well have the capability for chemical lab work, as well as light metal soldering and glass blowing).

Looks great - and I'm pretty envious (two things I wish I had - more space, and air conditioning).

Oh - one more thing: Add one or two circuits for dedicated arc welding use (maybe on the outside of the shop).

I will not respond to Arduino help PM's from random forum users; if you have such a question, start a new topic thread.